Ian Mahinmi's three seasons with the Spurs were riddled with injuries.

Ian Mahinmi's three seasons with the Spurs were riddled with injuries.

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Ian Mahinmi's three seasons with the Spurs were riddled with injuries.

Ian Mahinmi's three seasons with the Spurs were riddled with injuries.

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Mahinmi not back in Spurs black

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LAS VEGAS — Someone handed Ian Mahinmi his jersey before the start of his 2010 summer league debut earlier this week. Mahinmi's first inclination was to give it back.

“It was blue,” Mahinmi said. “All these years, I had been used to wearing silver and black.”

Tangled up in blue, Mahinmi could be forgiven for his momentary lapse. After all, he had officially been a Dallas Maverick for all of 24 hours.

On Wednesday, Mahinmi signed a two-year deal with Dallas, putting a quiet end to one of the Spurs' most frustrating draft-and-stash experiments. By Thursday, he was at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, starting at center for the Mavs' summer league squad against Washington.

“It's like a new chapter in my life,” said Mahinmi, 23. “I'm very excited about it.”

That excitement, however, is tempered by the disappointment of not being able to stick with the team that drafted him. It isn't so easy for Mahinmi to turn the page.

In June 2005, just months after defeating Detroit to earn their third of four NBA championships, the Spurs made Mahinmi the 28th pick in the NBA draft.

To say he was an obscure selection was an understatement. An unheralded prospect toiling in the lower tiers of the French League, his name wasn't even listed in the NBA's annual draft prospectus.

The Spurs, however, were intrigued by his height (6-foot-11) and by his speed and athleticism, rare gifts for a player of his size. The team left Mahinmi in France for two more seasons to germinate, then signed him before the start of the 2007-08 season.

In a star-crossed sign of things to come, Mahinmi tore his pectoral muscle in his first Spurs summer league. He spent most of his first season in America with the Austin Toros of the Development League, then lost his entire second season to a host of nagging injuries in 2008-09.

When the Spurs declined to pick up Mahinmi's fourth-year option in October, essentially making him a lame duck last season, he knew his days in San Antonio were numbered.

“It was frustrating, because even when I did well, I didn't get much of a chance,” Mahinmi said.

He says he had brief discussions with the Spurs about re-signing next season, but both parties decided it was better to part ways. In the end, Mahinmi inked a deal with Dallas starting at the veteran's minimum of $850,000.

His career could use a new chapter and more playing time, and he wasn't going to get it in San Antonio, especially after this week's arrival of Tiago Splitter. The Spurs hope Splitter, a 2007 first-round pick, will be the anti-Mahinmi.